About

Commentary and views of an Algerian about the Middle East and Algeria, Democracy and Human Rights, Islam and Reform, as well as whatever pair of topics the author wishes to write about. Comments are suggestions are welcome, please send them to houwarid [at] gmail.com

For immediate release
Algeria: Stop Suppressing Protests
Police Ban March and Arrest Organizers Who Called State TV a ‘Propaganda Machine’
(New York, May 3, 2010) — Algeria should end its repressive policy banning all demonstrations in the capital, Human Rights Watch said today, after police blocked a small rally planned in front of the offices of state television to demand press freedom. The police detained four protest organizers in the morning as they approached the site, on the grounds of inciting a gathering “that can disturb public tranquility,” an offense under the penal code. The four were questioned, then released in the early afternoon.
A law adopted in 2001 bans indefinitely all demonstrations in Algiers. The countrywide state of emergency in effect since 1992 allows Interior Ministry officials to ban any demonstration they deem “likely to disturb public order and tranquility.”
“Blocking even this small gathering that was advocating more pluralism on television news shows the sorry state of civil liberties in Algeria,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch.
The organizers of today’s demonstration had used Facebook to ask people to join a demonstration at 11 a.m. today to protest the “frightening regression in civil liberties in general and in freedom of press in particular,” and to demand that “controls on public media be lifted…so that they can fulfill a genuine mission of public service.” They also asked that “Algerians be permitted to create alternative stations capable of representing them and reflecting the political and social reality of our country.”

The Facebook appeal, posted last week, described Algerian television as “a fearsome propaganda machine at the service of [President Abdelaziz] Bouteflika, who has made himself its editor in chief.” The gathering was timed to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

The protest organizers, Adlène Meddi, Hakim Addad, Moustapha Ben Fodhil, and Saïd Khatibi, approached the headquarters of l’Entreprise Nationale de Télévision (ENTV) in central Algiers this morning. They found a heavy uniformed police presence and streets leading to the ENTV closed off. As soon as the four began to unfurl banners, the police detained them and took them to the Boulevard des Martyres station. Police officers questioned the men and then released them. The four said they were not mistreated.
Meddi and Ben Fodhil are journalists at the privately owned el-Watan French-language daily. Khatibi is a journalist at the privately owned el-Khabar Arabic daily. Addad heads Rassemblement – Actions – Jeunesse (RAJ), a nongovernmental youth movement in favor of human rights and democratization, and is an elected member of the Popular Provincial Assembly (Assemblée populaire de wilaya, APW) from the Socialist Forces Front party.
It is not known how many persons intended to participate in today’s demonstration because the barricading of streets approaching ENTV headquarters prevented potential demonstrators even from approaching it.
Under Algerian law, demonstrations require the prior approval from the Wilaya (governorate). In practice, organizers of demonstrations often proceed without applying for a permit since permits are almost never granted for demonstrations that might be considered critical of the government. Even when organizers do apply for a permit, as they did for an April 24, 2010, rally for Berber rights in the city of Aïn Benian, the response is repression. Human Rights Watch wrote today to Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni to protest the banning of that gathering and the arrest of its participants.

This must be the most interesting entries concerning Algeria I have come to encounter in all my net browsing years, and yet it just sufficed to google “Algeria” and there was the link to your blog!

The layout is quite simple in contrast with the sophisticated content, and the writing style can only be given justice if rendered by a quill on some pure cotton dazzling white paper but “la Cerise sur le Gateau” is the consequent amount of information contained within the mind and heart engaging subjects treated in your blog.
I was first going to email you in order to express what’s hereinabove but it would have been too much of a paradox if taking in consideration the real purpose of me contacting you.
I wish that there was less anonymity here in your blog and in most of the blogs you are linking to.
This wouldn’t have bothered me a notch if your blog was dedicated to poetry, cinema or even football but due to the very sensitive issues discussed, coupled with the unreferenced history of Algeria it really does matter to know who is saying what, if you see what I mean.

I fear that anonymity has no beneficial use in this very place, but then again, I would love it if you could comment on this subject.

Kindest regards and Ramadan mubarek;

PS. Please feel free to delete my posting if you judge it irrelevant or misplaced.

I have created a new website as part of my PhD in media studies and I am trying to find people who are able to link to their blogs which concern other cultures in order to get around corporate and governmental controlled media.

Our site is new but I think it will eventually be a good place to promote your blog and get the word out about what is going on there. The intention is to promote the “oneness” of humanity and allow people to meet people of other cultures and countries through a virtual piazza.

There is also a spot to make short video introduction so that people may see who “you” are and follow you with video tweets as well as through your blog.

The site is http://www.meetvids.com and I would really like to have you on the site and promote the site with you as well as promote your blog.

as everyone was able to see within the last days and weeks, people everywhere in the Maghreb countries and the Arabian world fight for basic democratic rights against the authoritarian regimes. But although the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali already had to leave the country, people all over these countries need a certain progressive perspective – a basis on which they are able to fight for their rights. Otherwise, these countries might fall back into dictatorship, as the actual government in Tunisia shows, which mainly consists of politicians of the old Ben-Ali-regime. Therefore, people should be exposed to the Theory of Permanent Revolution. In the following you can find two links in Arabian and English which describe the coherence between the events in North Africa and Permanent Revolution. I would really appreciate if you could publish these two links as far as possible, as they might be the only solution for the people in these countries. Thank you very much!

Assalamu Aleikum,
Hope all is well with you.
Wanted to check with you if you would be open to the idea of reviewing an Islamic App on your blog. I have recently introduced an Islamic App that allows users to track their deeds, thus enabling focus on areas of shortfalls and increasing others from current levels. The name of the app is iSawab.
For more details, please visit http://www.isawab.com. And if you’re able to review the app, I would certainly appreciate the gesture.
Thanks for your time.
Wassalam,
Abdul Raouf